Description

The cover consists of four joined widths of silk damask brocaded with Bizarre motifs in silk and metal thread and silk chenille. Peter Thornton, in Baroque and Rococo Silks, writes that in the final years of the seventeenth century ‘a new and extraordinary phase in the history of silk design begins. It is usually known as the ‘Bizarre Phase’ because many of the patterns produced at this stage are so fantastic as to be virtually indescribable. The high point of the Bizarre Phase was reached about 1705, and lasted until 1710 or so..’. He also notes that one of the causes behind the new designs may have been exposure to oriental forms of decoration on textiles brought in by the East India Companies in the last third of the seventeenth century. The term is derived from the title of the book by Dr Vilhelm Slomann, Bizarre Designs in Silks, in which attention was first drawn to the group of patterns. The Abegg Foundation has a chasuble made, in part, of a silk brocade of similar design (inv. no. 3991)